OTTAWA – Conservative government budget cuts are forcing Canada’s army to scale back activities in the Arctic and cease training in other areas such as deserts and mountains, according to documents obtained by the Citizen.
The army is bearing the brunt of cuts to the Canadian Forces and will see its budget reduced by 22 per cent over the next several years. The budget will drop from $1.5 billion to just under $1.2 billion by 2015.
The reductions will affect how the army trains as well as its operations. The decision to scale back on Arctic missions flies in the face of the Conservative government’s high-profile efforts to increase the military’s presence in the North.
The army, however, indicates it has no other choice as it is struggling with the excessive price tag of operating in the Arctic.
“Recent Northern exercises and operations highlight the fact that conduct of these activities can cost from five to seven times more than if they were conducted in Southern Canada,” noted the Jan. 31 planning document from army commander Lt.-Gen. Peter Devlin. “The Army will have to limit/reduce the scope of its activities in the North, thus directly impacting on Canada’s ability to exercise Arctic sovereignty.”
The document, to provide direction on how the army will conduct its business this year and next, was leaked to the Citizen.
It also notes that deployments overseas will be scaled back and certain specialized training will stop entirely. “Training in specific environments (jungle, desert, littoral, mountain) will cease until such a time as new funding is made available,” Devlin writes. “Local training can obviously continue for units based in littoral or mountainous environments.”
Devlin wrote in the planning document that he was comforted by the fact army commanders are well suited to “leading change” and they will be able to deal with the government’s cost-cutting measures. But he added: “This period of fiscal uncertainty and reduction will have an impact on the way the CA (Canadian Army) has been accustomed to conducting its business for the past decade. As a result, the CA is being forced to review the way it trains and sustains its soldiers for all phases of war.”
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The army could not respond with a comment by press time on how the cuts would be handled.
But in December, Devlin warned a Senate committee that the 22-per-cent reduction to the budget would mean significant changes, although he did not get into many of the details. “We are training to a lower level than we trained when we were training for combat operations,” he acknowledged.
At the time, Defence Minister Peter MacKay’s office released a statement noting that training is expected to slow since the Canadian Forces are no longer in combat missions in Afghanistan or Libya and their contribution to missions such as the one in Haiti has been substantially reduced.
The army’s decision to reduce its role in Arctic operations is a departure from the government’s push in the North. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has announced various military initiatives for the Arctic, which have generated positive publicity for his government.
But many of the announced initiatives are years away from becoming reality and opposition MPs and some of Canada’s allies have questioned whether many of the ambitious plans will see the light of day.
The U.S. government has privately dismissed many of the announcements as having little to do with enforcing sovereignty in the North. American diplomats instead suggested that such initiatives are largely designed to attract votes. “Conservatives make concern for ‘The North’ part of their political brand and it works,” according to a diplomatic cable written by analysts at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa. WikiLeaks made the 2010 cable public.
There have also been delays and problems with Arctic-related equipment purchases and infrastructure initiatives.
The Defence Department had been expecting to take delivery of the first of the Arctic/Offshore Patrol Ships this year. That, however, was delayed to 2015. But according to documents presented to the House of Commons last year, the delivery will now be delayed until at least 2018.
Plans for a naval facility at Nanisivik, Nunavut, have been scaled back because of the high cost of building in the North.
Federal government plans to improve a runway in the area are not expected to proceed.
The Royal Canadian Air Force had also looked at a major expansion of Resolute Bay in Nunavut as it considered transforming it into a key base for Arctic operations. That would have involved the construction of a 3,000-metre paved runway, hangars, fuel installations and other infrastructure.
But the RCAF has confirmed that proposal will not be proceeding.
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